The effects of food processing on some cereal and potato products are discussed with respect to the status of 11 trace elements. The influences of milling, bread making and cooking of potatoes on the contents of trace elements are demonstrated. It is shown that these recently obtained results are quite representative for the former federal Republic of Germany (FRG) as compared with results published previously. Average intake levels of undesired elements such as cadmium and lead, as well as of essential elements such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, selenium and zinc via consumption of cereal and potato products are calculated.

Samples of wheat, rye and barley from previous harvests, some of them dating back even to the past century and placed at the authors' disposal by a number of seed growers and governmental research institutions, were examined for their cadmium content by AAS or ICP-AES. Although no statistically valid data could be obtained owing to the low number of samples, it should nevertheless be stressed that the cadmium content found in cereal samples from harvests of the past were within the range of present-day wheat samples. Thus, the variation in wheat samples from former harvests was 20-100 micrograms/kg which is coincident with an average cadmium content of 50-60 micrograms/kg measured in 2000 what samples from the harvests of the last 10 years as determined in a special survey by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry. Comparison of the results for cereals samples from harvests of the past and the samples of the survey conducted by the Ministry does not indicate a trend towards a continuously rising cadmium contents of bread cereals.

In representative samples of bread cereals and cereal products from the former Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) the status of 11 trace elements was analysed in 1989. It is demonstrated that the results are quite representative for the former FRG as compared with results published in the previous 15 years. The sampling technique for staple foods is explained. A number of certified standard reference materials were used to validate the analytical methods employed.

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